Cycling in Ghent

When I was in Ghent (= Gent, Gante or Gand), a lot of the bicycles had little signs on them reading “Weer een Auto Minder”, which means: Again one less car. Or: Another car less. Or, for us older folks: Another car fewer. (When I was in school, were taught Read More …

The Belfry of Ghent

In the song Marieke by Jacques Brel (1929-1978), the two Flemish cities of Brugge and Gent are linked together over and over by their French names, because the song is about a love affair that took place “between the towers of Bruges and Gand”. Ay Marieke Marieke je t’aimais tant Read More …

European survey

These young people in red T-shirts, from various European countries, were doing some sort of project in Ghent for a summer school that they were on. They wanted to ask me some questions in English about European integration and also wanted to take my picture, which I said was fine Read More …

Wildplassen

You don’t need a dictionary to know what “Wildplassen” means. If they catch you doing it in Ghent, you’ll be fined sixty Euros. As you can see from the sign, the rule applies equally to both sexes. This is quite a stiff penalty, considering that the fine for the same Read More …